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JUDEA 



BY 

H. N. ATKINSOISr 



PRESS OF 

STATE PRINTING CO. 

HOUSTON 



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COPYRIGHTED 1910 

BY H. N. ATKINSON 

HOUSTON, TEXAS 



CC1.A265298 



JUDEA 



By H. N. ATKINSON 



0, Storied Land that bears the name of him, 
Before whose face his father's children bowed; 

1, mindful of the thoughtless fate of one, 

Who touched God's ark, with all unworthj^ hands. 
Bring this, my rev'rend tribute to thy shrine. 
Thy leagues are few between thy widest bounds 
And small thy space upon the world's great globe. 
Yet, not the widest empires that have been, 
Hold griefs and glories such as thou bast known. 

Thy pictured scroll has forms, most wondrous fair, 
Who dwelt in those far yesterdaj^s of thine, 
Serving in tender minist'ries of life; 
Foremothers, they, of prophets, priests and kings. 
Whose words and deeds are told by parents' knees, 
And hold the thoughts of wise men. old and gray, 
In every land beneath the arching sky. 

Dreaming her maiden dreams of days to be, 
Dark-eyed Rebecca waits beside the well, 
And greets love's messenger from far away; 
She rides with him into the stranger lands, 
To meet a husband and the bridal morn. 
Returning to her father's house, no more. 

3 



And she, first loved and latest won of him. 

First called of God to bear proud Israel's name; 

The gentle Rachel, shepherding her flock. 

Thro' the long service of twice seven years. 

And who, her latest earthly wish denied, 

Was made a wayside grave by Bethlehem, 

Still holds our hearts in life and love and death. 

All nnforgotten stands the faithful Ruth, 
The patient gleaner of the harvest field, 
The weary toiler 'mid the standing sheaves, 
WTiose head was pillowed on the threshing floor, 
Who spoke all time's supremest words of love, 
And beggared ever}^ wooer's after speech. 

There, too, are seen those iron-hearted dames. 
Stern ladies of the hammer and the sword. 
Fierce Jael and Judith, deadlier than Death 
In vengeance on their country's foes who slept. 

And still, are traced, outlined in darker shades. 
Foul Ahab's queen, whose name stains all thy years; 
Poor Xaboth's blood, lapped up by hungry dogs, 
The stolen vineyard and Jehovah's wrath. 

Yet, when Earth's Kingliest One went forth to die, 

Xo woman's lips flung down the cruel jibe. 

No woman's hand laid on the shameful lash. 

Or pressed the vroven thorns upon His brow. 

Or drove the nails thro' shrinking- hands and feet, 

Or thrust the spear into the bleeding side 

Of Him, by man denied, by man betrayed. 

INIost beautiful in Faith and Love were they. 
The last to leave Their Dead when day was done, 
The first to meet the morning by His grave. 
And greet the guardian Angel watching there. 

Before thy Strong IMan, clad in battle's rage. 
The alien armies flee and fall and die. 
His babbling lips are won by Beauty's spell, 
He softly sleeps on fair Delilah's knee, 



And all his strength is sweetly shorn away. 
Witli blinded eyes he toils at menial tasks, 
Until his locks of strength are grown once more, 
Then rends the rock-biiilt temple's pillars down, 
And dies amid his foes in thousands slain, 
Wreaking a vengeance worthy of a god. 

Thy fair-haired boy who left his father's flocks, 
And stalked, nnf earing, mid the armed men. 
Who plucked a stone from out a wayside brook. 
And laid Philistia's giant Champion low, 
Still nerves the weaker arm to win the fight. 
And aid's the Right to thrust the Wrong aside. 

Thro' clouds that darken round thy distant past 
Still cleaves the light'ning flash of Gideon's sword. 
And rolling down the stream of time, we hear, 
The thunders of thy captains, in the wars. 

At their command the coursers of the sun 

Stayed in their headlong flight, across the sky. 

In Ajalon's vale the unresting moon was still, 

While far. o'er Gibeon's plain, the battle raged. 

And there was clash of swords and loosened bows. 

While all the field was rife with stabbing spears. 

With shouts of conquest and with dying moans. 

As strong men's lives leaped forth thro' gaping wounds. 

And when Earth's longest day was changed to night, 

Far fled in flight, cr still in pulseless death, 

Was every foe that faced the morning's fray. 

For thou hadst warriors, brave as Earth has borne. 
Since primal man first strove with primal man 
For mast'ry of blood-sodden fields of death; 
Or shall bear, till the years of strife are done. 
And all the dev'lish enginery of war, 
Reforged to nobler use, in kindlier fires, 
Shall plow and reap the harvests of the world. 
And every race dwell in white tents of peace. 

When doubts and fears along Life's path arise. 
And misty lines divide the False and True, 
The wisdom of thy sages guides us still, 



And leads us on, thro' safe and prosperous ways. 
To where, beyond the night, Truth's morning shines. 

When Earth's high councils meet in splendid halls, 

To higher build the fabrics of their laws. 

Each statute, framed in truth and righteousness. 

Has Sinai's Code for deep foundation stones 

And bears upon its crest the Golden Rule. 

Thy poets trod on star-crowned heiglits of song; 
Their swelling diapason grandly sweeps. 
Full organ-voiced, adoAvn the aisles of Time. 
The highest strain that mortal lips have sung. 



Thro' eyes that saw the day-spring's ciescent flame. 

Ere yet the years, in thousands, drifted by. 

We see Grief's tears, on cold, dead faces fall; 

We see the fadeless glow of Sharon's rose, 

The pure white lilies bloom in loAvly lands, 

The mellow lights that fall at even time. 

And all the beauties of that j^ounger world; 

While borne upon th.eir winged words we hear 

The song of birds, when winter's reign is done, 

The lover's call unto his waiting love. 

The victor's hymn, 'mid his triumphant spears, 

The joyous laughter of the sons of God, 

And wordless music of the morning stars. 

Thy prophets walked with That High. Changeless One, 
To ^^^lom all Past and Future are but Now; 
They saw, far down, thro' thrice a thousand years. 
The visions that these latter days fulfill. 

They pass the vale, whereon Death's shadow lies. 

And lean, unfearing, on An Arm That guides. 

They rend the fetters of the Grave, — and climb; — 

They use the high, white stars for stepping stones — 

For them the amethystine gates unbar; 

For them the finished course, the victor's crown. 

The clasping hands of loved ones waiting there. 

6 



The balm of leaves from Life's unwitheied tree. 
Heals ev'iy hurt from olden grief and pain, 
And clad in garments wrought in heavenly looms, 
They wander free^, thro' groves of Paradise. 

Their paths lead on by that immortal stream 

Whose living springs are 'neath the Throne of God. 

Before them spreads afar, that Shining Sea, 

With rippling weaves, as mingled glass and fire; 

While all the glories of the Nightless Land 

Are round them in That Viewless Presence, where 

The Great Archangels veil their flaming eyes. 

Of old, upon a mountan crest once stood 
Thy Prophet-Chief and saw, unrolled afar, 
Across thy Jordan's stream, the Promised Land. 
One first, last glimpse he had, then turned away, 
To find a grave, not made by mortal hands, 
Unseen by human eye forevermore. 

Brief is its course, adown its rocky path, 

From Hermon's height to that Gallilean Sea, 

Whose fisher's nets are spread so wide today; 

And downward, still, to that grim Lake of Death, 

The lowest wave that mocks the pitying stars, 

Yet rolls above the cities of the plain, 

And hides curst Sodom from the eye of God. 

A narrow stream, scarce more than rivulet; 

No sea-borne commerce moves along its breast. 

No barges plow its waves. A little child 

]Might ford its waters on a summer day; 

But in the thoughts that sway the souls of men. 

It flows between the lands of Doubt and Faith, 

It rolls between the worlds of Life and Death, 

It sweeps between the bounds of Eai-th and Heaven, 

And dwarfs the might v Amazons of Time. 



There walked the feet of Thy Mysterious Son, 
Pale Sorrow's Child, Who knew the ways of Grief: 
Whose dead hand reaches from His crucifix, 
To close its grasp 'round all this waiting- world. 

He hated those who trampled on the poor, 

And loathed the men whose lives were living lies. 

From out his speech of woven fangs and fire. 

He made them robes of endless infamy, 

And set them in the world's chief place of shame. 

High pilloried forever. 

In kindled wrath 
And with a triple scourge of knotted cords; 
From out the Temple of the Most High God; 
Sternly, he lashed the money changers forth. 

Yet little children came and clung to Him; 

His pity fell, as soft as Hermon's dews, 

On all the weak and erring sons of men. 

I'or those who wore sweet woman's gentle form, 

No word of chiding in His voice was heard; 

For them, was His divinest courtesy. 

And one there was, who, strayed in waj-s aside, 

As some bright bird that left her leafy home, 

To trail her plumes in low and miry ways, 

Was haled; before Him by revengeful men. 

He searched their hearts with keen and biting words. 

Until, abashed, they from His Presence crept. 

And, when the trembling culprit stood alone. 

On her bowed head, His words of mercy fell. 

And bade her go. in peace, and sin no more. 

First Knight of God, Matchless in chivalry. 

He died, with all forgiveness on His lips! 

The shameful cross, whereon His spirit passed, 

Is grown the proudest badge that mortals wear; 

While that sharp crown that mocked His tortured brow 

Outshines all diadems of gems and gold. 

In life, so poor, He owned no resting place, 

Yet Earth is filled with temples to His praise. 

He went to death, a thief on either hand. 

And marshalled millions fought to win His grave. 

8 



And lo! A wondrous thing appears to me 
Like that strange dream the great Ezekiel saw, 
A vision tliat J may not understand. 
Christ's standard floats above imperial Rome, 
But halts outside of Old Jerusalem. 
Bides she, alone, till He shall come again. 
Or, waits the Bride for Shiloh yet to be ? 

For tliere had won to thee, from Tiber's side. 
The she-wolf's brood, that bore the brand of Cain, 
And brought the Cross. Rome's hateful gallows-tree, 
A thing, in all thy land, unknown before. 

They charged The Christ that He would be thy King 

To free thy land from Caesar's iron sway. 

And wear the kingly crown that David wore. 

By Roman Laws in Roman Court 'twas tried. 

And there, a Roman Judge pronounced His doom. 

By Roman thorns and lash and nails and spear 

And on a Roman Cross His Soul was sped. 

And for the poor, worn garb that wrapped His form. 

The Roman dice, by Roman hands were thrown. 

Then cruel Pilate, with his crafty smile. 
Did call for water when the deed was done, 
Washed from liis hands the blood of innocence 
And charged that crime upon thy he]])less race. 

And that foul seed sown in the soil of Time, 

Has grown for thee, its wormwood harvestings 

Of hate and shame and tears and agony, 

Thy Sisyphean reapings have not reaped. 

]n all the ages that have come between. 

Its upas bloom still poisons fairest lands. 

Its crimson fruit stains Russia's bloody snows; 

It spares not manhood's prime nor whitened age. 

And dooms thy feeble little ones to die. 

What heaped up wrongs the slow years piled on thee, 
Only thy Sleepless God. ^V[\o guards, may know. 
And yet wnthout or lifted voice or hand, 
Such glut of awful vengeance has been thine. 
As makes a Nero's raae a benison. 



As when the foemen bore thine Ark away 

To rest in Aslidod by false Dagon's side, 

And found the torments of strange plagues had come, 

Thy robes of faith, remade by Gentile hands. 

And worn by those, slow groping to the light. 

Were Xessean garments, mad'ning down to Death. 

The torches kindled at thine alfar fires^ 

Were flung as flaming brands about the Avorld, 

While far and wide, War's dragon teeth were sown. 

And armed men sprang up to meet the strife. 

^Mohamet's hordes rode from Arabian sands 

In Allah's holy name, to slay and slay; 

And deeds were done, for love of Loving Christ, 

To flush a pale arch -devil's cheek with shame. 

In all the regions round the oceans' shores, 

Xo foot of soil now owns Judea's sway: 

Xo flag of thine floats over land or sea. 

'Xeath all the bending blue. Thy ships no more. 

Bearing the wealth of Sidon and of Tyre, 

Sail forth, beyond the misty Western Isles. 

Or come, from Tarshish, home. But on the realms. 

That hold the unseen kingdom of the soul. 

How proudly rests thy crown! Thy throne is built. 

High o'er the empire of the minds of men; 

And steadfast stands, 'uiid all the changing years. 

Above the fleets of thought-built argosies, 

Thy banners flame, as in the olden days. 

The lowly roof, where, by far country lanes. 
A toil-worn few, may meet for words of praise; 
The tall, cathedral spire, that mid the throngs. 
Looks down on archer, bent o'er aisles of prayer. 
Are spirit kin to that high, wondrous fane 
Thy Wise King builded on the :Mount of Ood. 

Thy words are Avoven in our earliest speech; 
In Life, they come as sun-light and the air. 
They thrill above the low, baptismal font. 
And softly breathe the marriage vows that bind. 
They tremble on our latest, falt'ring breath; 
O'er open graves their mournful splendors pour. 

10 



Thev lift tear-blinded eyes, beyond the tomb, 
To That Bright Land, where many mansions be. 
A thousand ways. Earth's wearied children climb, 
Thro' sects and creeds that sever man from man, 
To scale the skies, where Those High Portals are, 
And every way draws all its light from Thee. 
We crown Thy Virgin, Queen of Earth and Heaven, 
And hail Thy Christ as being One with God. 

Through Thee, to mortal minds, was first revealed, 
Some far, faint glimpse of That Eternal One, 
"Who sends the Spring Time and the Harvest down. 
With treasures of the sunshine and the rain. 
And all the beauties of the changing year. 
^^^lo tints the petals of the opening rose, 
And paints the sun-set's glories on the sky. 

He spoke: And lo, from out the ancient void. 

The sun of day in all his light shone forth, 

With this, our earth, whereon through space we ride. 

And all her sister worlds that gem the night. 

As pollened bees flit on from bloom to bloom. 
His far-sent comets blaze athwart the sky, 
Bearing the seeds of life from world to world. 
To flower and fruit, in times and ways unknown. 

He loosed the sweet influence of Pleiades 

And girded on Orion's shining bands; 

He guides Canopus on his mighty path 

And leads Arcturus with his sons to war. 

He moulds the whirling star-dust into stars, 

And strews the Universe with blazing suns. 

With circling planets for the homes of life. 

His power is shown, beyond the out-po^t fires 

That guard His far domains from farthest Xight; 

His mercy glows in every blade of grass 

That spreads the low green carpet at our feet. 

11 



He was, ere yet Duration's self had place, 

Or ere the first eternities began, 

In far, white splendors, round His Central Throne! 

He shall he, when the Scroll of Time is read, 

And all the last eternities are done; 

Yet cares for us, frail children of a day. 

And feeds the younoling ravens ^lien they cr}'. 

The Gods of Greece are mid Earth's vanished dreams, 

Gone is the shrine of Capitolian Jove, 

Dark Isis reigns no more along the Nile, 

And Moloch's fires are dead and dead his priests, 

But Israel's God is God forevermore. 



Egypt and Babylon have conquered thee. 

And Rome hath battered down thy walls of pride. 

The fell barbarians swept thy land with fire. 

They harvested thy sons with crimsoned swords, 

And sold thy daughters clown to nameless shame. 

On willows far, thy people's harps are hung. 

By far-off streams thy scattered children wail. 

A homeless race amid the sons of men. 

Thy head is bowed beneath an alien yoke. 

The Moslem's heel is on thy land today; 

And where God's Temple lifted marble walls. 

And flung the sun-beams from its roofs of gold, 

The base-born Janizaries flout thy name. 

And ragged beggars spurn thy sacred dust. 

Upon the stone that seals thy Nation's tomb. 
In deep'ning folds, the centuries are laid. 
In Earth's far ends thy steadfast children wait. 
With faith as changeless as thv granite hills, 
'Till they shall hear thy Shiloh's Zionward call; 
V»'hen by thj^ feet Thy Great Lawgiver stands, 
And Judah's hosts shall have their o^vn once more; 
When years have drawn the Future's veil aside, 
And time rmfolds the purposes of God. 

But O, th}' steadfast faith bears fruit, no more. 
Save bitter husks, for thy starved spirit's - need; 
And. all untrod those Heights of Righteousness, 

12 



Whereon thy seers and great ones dwelt of old. 
Below them, raged the thunder storms of sin; 
The TemjDter's lurings beckoned from afar, 
Nor stain of wrong was on their garments found. 
They heard the uttered speech of day to day, 
Proud chantings to the glory of Our God; 
To them, from night to night was knowledge shown^ 
Dim wisdom, never garnered into words. 



Above them, at The Great Commander's will. 
The starry hosts in stately squadrons wheeled. 
Sweeping away to far infinities 
Along the trackless paths His hands have made, 
While, linking Earth to unseen spirit worlds, 
High o'er them sprang those ladders built of light 
Whereon the feet of angels went and came. 



Below the heights, where cloud and mountain meet, 
And grovelling on the ground, I see thee lie, 
With bended knees and forehead prone in dust. 
Before the gods of gold thy hands have made; 
And cast aside the manna sent from heaven, 
For Egypt's flesh-pots and its herbs are sweet. 

To darkened chambers of thy prison house 
Of bondage unto dead, material things. 
What Moses comes to rend th}" chains away, 
Or lead thee up unto what promised land? 

Beneath the Cherubim's wide -brooding wings 

Shekinah's awful presence comes no more. 

Behind the veil thine orarcles are dumb. 

And gone the dreams, with tidings from On High, 

The visions gone, that showed the ways to God; 

And mourning all thy evil days that come 

With lifted hands, I raise this prayer for thee: 

Oh, Great Jehovah, Thou, who from of old. 
Wast Israel's Guide in pillared cloud and fire; 
Who buildst the wat'ry walls on either hand 

13 



And ledst his feet dry-shod, across the sea; 

^^^lo smot'st fell Sennacherib in his pride, 

And drav'st his shattered hosts, as \A'ithered leaves 

Are hurled before the storm-wind's master breath, 

Raise up Thy fallen children once again, 

And be to them their Falchion and their Shield. 



The barjped and poisoned shafts of Hate and Wrong 
Wherewith the archers long have grieved them sore, 
Turn Thou, God, aside. 

Lift up their hearts. 
From love of cold and base material things. 
And lead their thoughts again to love of Thee. 

And when the fullness of the j^eai-s has come. 
The years so vast to us^ so brief to Thee, 
From outmost isles and countries strange and far. 
May Israel's race be gathered home to dwell 
Within their father's land, of long ago. 
Feed them on spirit corn and wine and oil, 
And grapes of Eshcol, purpling in the suns 
That shine on hills and vales of Palestine. 
Give them again, the vision and the dream 
That Daniel knew in Babylonian lands, 
Or Jacob saw. where Egypt's river flows. 
When, looking down, thro' all the years to be, 
He called his sons around his couch of death. 

Teach them that not from 'oft repeated words, 
Shall rise the worship pleasing unto Thee; 
That lives of those who come to do Thy will. 
Are loftiest temples builded in Thy praise; 
That, as of old, the broken, contrite heart 
Is noblest off'ring on Thine altars laid; 
That still, the kindly deed in kindness done 
Makes sacrificial incense sweeter far 
Then myriad censers swung by priestly hands. 

Bring down the years of peace that Avait on high, 
And speed the time when nations war no more. 
Hasten the days when deeds of righteousness 

14 



Shall clothe the earth as waters clothe the sea. 
And none destroy and none shall make afraid, 
In all the holy mountains of Thy world. 

And when the things of Time and Change are gone, 
And all this firmament has rolled away. 
As folded garments that are laid aside. 
Made white from every stain of earth and sin 
And saved in the forgiveness of Thy love. 
May Jew and Gentile gather Home to dwell, 
In yon Fair City Thou has built On High. 
That, lighted with the glory of Thy smile, 
Knows not the darkness of the dreadful night, 
And needs not sun, nor moon, nor stars. 

— Amen. 




15 



MAY 28 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



PAAY 28 ISIQ 



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